Exercise 17, Horizontal And Vertical Lines,
In this exercise, my task was to go out and look for examples of both horizontal and vertical lines – especially in scenes where they are dominant. The aim is to find how vertical and horizontal lines can appear in both the camera and to the viewer of the resulting photographs. During the course of this exercise, I struggled with some of the images I had taken as the lines were not the most dominant force in the image and were often superceeded by other content in the photograph – however I will explain how I view the lines and the effect I have for each of the images I did eventually opt to use.
So, lets get the ball rolling –
Vertical
55mm, 1/400 sec, f/2.8, iso100
In this first image, there are a series of repetitive vertical lines in the form of the soldiers and their guns also giving a certain element of rhythm. The uniforms, along with the angle and the repetitive nature of soldiers standing in rank give a very regimental feel to the photograph.
13mm, 1/400 sec, f/4, iso100
In this second example of vertical lines, I took a very typical subject used to portray such lines – a tall building. Namely an old ruined church steeple. I also opted to take the shot in a portrait orientation in order to try to enhance the vertical nature of the subject. The strong vertical lines found along the edge of the tower where the brick contrasts strongly against the blue sky background are quite pronounced – helped slightly by a little work in photoshop. More vertical lines can be found within the brick work. The main downside to this image is that due to the angle of view some of the lines appear to be more diagonal than completely vertical. I feel as well that I should have used a slightly tighter crop as there is a larger expanse of plain blue sky at the top of the image with no detail in it. Failing that, returning to the location when the sky has a bit more mood behind it such as dark clouds may result in an overall better image.
24mm, 1/800 sec, f/2.8, iso100
I quite like this image, there are plenty of examples of vertical lines. The first and foremost is the statue in the foreground depicting a soldier blindfolded and tied to a stake – the main focus point in the photograph. Just behind this main focal point is a large number of smaller posts, all of which are vertical and very repetitive in their nature. Lastly, at the very back of the image and hardly worth mentioning, the background is made up of a series of trees, which are obviously vertical in nature. Despite the photograph being in a landscape orientation, I feel it does not detract from the very vertical nature of the subject and background.
50mm, 1/60 sec, f/11, iso400
This final example of vertical lines depicts a small section of a guitar – where I found the vertical lines of the guitar strings to be quite interesting. The decorations on the guitar body help to lead the viewers eyes to the fret board and more importantly – the guitar strings. The vertical lines of the strings take up the greatest proportion of the photograph, instinctively capturing and holding a viewers attention, despite being fairly subtle and not really standing out from the black fretboard background.
Horizontal
50mm, 1/100 sec, f/1.8, iso100
This first example is a crop of a larger image. I positioned the handle high and to the left in order to lead the viewer into the photograph towards the axe head and tree stump. To me this gives a sense of direction along the horizontal line of the axe handle without much else distracting from it (emphasised by the shallow depth of field) until you follow the axe handle to the rest of the detail. Desoite this, I feel that this is not a particularly strong example of a horizontal line. Perhaps if I had used a tighter crop focusing entirely on the handle and where it connects to the axe head may have worked better, but this would of been heavily detrimental to the final image as the above image was a crop of a larger image, as previously mentioned.
24mm, 1/125 sec, f/8, iso100
This second example has a very strong horizontal line in it, taking form of the bridge almost creating a horizon across the photo. There is little else to distract the viewer away from the bridge, especially as it extends across the entire frame – shooting this image in a landscape orientation has helped to emphasise this point.
12mm, 1/1600 sec, f/4, iso100
The shadow landscape in this example provides a very strong horizontal line across the entire frame, as it contrasts heavily against the orange sunset sky. The details of trees and other objects help break up the sky slightly on the horizon without really distracting from the strong horizontal line formed by the shadow landscape.
75mm, 1/1600 sec, f/4.2, iso400
In this final example of horizontal lines, there is repitition found amongst the two roughly horizontal rows of rifles, an upper row and lower row. Whilst not completely uniformed there is a sense of rhythm amongst the rifle barrels, emphasised by the smoke from each of the barrels. I opted to take the shot in a landscape orientation in order to fit in as many of the rifles firing as I possibly could, which I feel also help to emphasise the horizontal nature of the rifles.
In this exercise I have found that you can find many examples of horizontal and vertical lines in day to day situations, some more pronounced than others. Certain orientations can help emphasise those lines, such as placing vertical lines in a portrait orientation and horizontal in a landscape orientation. I feel that in my work I have shown a variety of different examples without any real repitition, some are more strong than others – but as to be expected with a learning log I have taken note of the ones I feel have worked well more than others and I have assessed why certain examples have not worked as well as I had hoped.